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Thursday, December 28, 2017

Read an excerpt from Megan's Pet Sitting Adventure by Pamela Foland

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Megan's Pet Sitting Adventure

Bringing up four kittens is expensive, and if Megan can't come up with an idea fast, her parents will give her precious babies away. She thought pet sitting would be a fun, easy job. Getting to be around more animals - what could go wrong? Megan gets her first job watching Mrs. Driscoll's pets for the weekend. She is responsible for the enthusiastic lab named Max, a talkative African parrot named Taffy, and a finicky Burmese cat named Holly. Each pet comes with its own quirky personality, but Megan plans to look after them like her own. She enlists the help of her best friend Jill, but Jill's mind isn't focused on the pets. Is Megan in over her head? Her neighbor's pets are certainly testing Megan's pet care knowledge. She is thrown one curveball after another as she works to keep the three pets safe and happy. How will Megan fare? Will she earn the Driscoll's praise or get scolded for giving poor pet care? Find out in this exciting story of Megan's Pet Sitting Adventure!

Available on Amazon

Read an excerpt:

“There you go, babies,” Megan cooed, stroking each kitten as they ate. “We have to go to the
Driscoll’s and take care of their pets. I’ll be back soon.”

Megan and Jill left the kittens and dashed back down the stairs.

When they reached the Driscoll’s house, Megan unlocked the front door, and Jill closed it quickly
to prevent Max from escaping. He bounded into the entry hall and jumped up to lick first Megan
and then Jill.

Megan giggled and twisted her face away from Max’s quick slurping tongue. “Hi Max, I’m happy
to see you too.”

“Oh, Max, don’t lick my makeup off,” Jill squealed.

“Come on, we need to check on Holly and Taffy,” Megan said, pulling Max by his collar so he
would get off Jill.

Max returned to all four paws on the floor and trotted after Megan as she crossed the living
room.

After turning on the light, Megan knelt next to Taffy’s cage. “Hi, Taffy. What are you doing
pretty bird? Do you want to come out and play?”

“She’s not going to bite me,” Megan said, rolling her eyes at her friend.

Megan reached over and started undoing the bottom latch on the cage door. Taffy hopped to
the perch closest to the door and watched Megan’s fingers work.

“You’re eager to come out, aren’t you?” said Megan, as she moved her hand to undo the top
lock.

Just as her fingers gripped the clasp on the door’s top lock, Taffy stepped forward and gave
Megan’s pointer finger a sharp bite.

“Ouch!” Megan pulled her hand back and jumped to her feet in surprise.

“Ha ha ha. Be sweet. Ouch. Ha ha ha,” said Taffy.

“It’s not funny, Taffy. That hurt,” Megan scolded.

Taffy was undeterred by the scolding and unapologetically continued laughing, “Ouch. Ha ha
ha.”

“Taffy, your parents trusted us to watch you this weekend. Now, that means I have to open your
cage door. You babies aren’t getting sick or injured on my watch, so let me--” Megan pulled her
hand back just in time.

Taffy squawked, “Be sweet, ouch, ha ha ha.”

“Well, if you’re going to be that way, you can stay in there for a while,” Megan retorted. She
quickly redid the bottom lock on the cage door.

Megan clutched her bitten finger to her chest and examined it.

“Are you alright?” Jill asked.

“That hurt, but it didn’t break the skin,” Megan said, showing her injury to Jill.

“Looks like you will have a blood blister on your finger for a few days,” said Jill, studying the bite
mark.

The girls left the living room in search of Holly.

“Holly, where are you pretty kitty?” Megan called.

Megan and Jill wandered down the hall and into the Driscoll’s bedroom followed closely by Max.

After turning on the light, they spotted Holly sprawled across the bedspread.

“Hi, Holly. Wake up sleepy head,” Megan sat on the edge of the bed and scratched behind
Holly’s ears.

“Do you hear that? She’s purring,” Megan said, smiling at her friend.

Jill stood at the foot of the bed watching, “I can’t hear anything.”

“Come closer, it’s really a soft purr.”

Jill sat on the bed and reached over to scratch Holly’s head.

“I can now,” Jill said.

After a few minutes, Holly got up and stretched before moving to the middle of the pillows.

Megan jumped off the bed, “You want to play? I will find your feather toy and be right back.”

Jill said, “She looks like she wants to sleep.”

“I know, but I saw a bunch of cat toys near Mrs. Driscoll’s chair in the living room. I want to get
her to play for a minute,” said Megan, disappearing from the room.

Megan smiled at Max as she turned around and walked back to Taffy’s cage. “Is that your way of
apologizing? Alright, Taffy, I accept. I’ll let you out now.”

Megan kept her eyes on Taffy and slowly reached for the top lock. As soon as her fingers neared
the clasp, Taffy darted forward beak open.

Megan pulled her hand back and said, “I have to undo the lock if you want to come out.”As Megan chose a toy from the basket and turned to leave the room, Taffy called, “Come here.
Be sweet.”

How am I ever going to be able to feed and care for her with her biting at me?
Megan said, “Taffy be nice and let me--” Megan’s hand wasn’t even to the cage clasp yet when
Taffy dove for her fingers.

Megan sighed. She grabbed the feather toy from the basket and showed it to Taffy. “Fine, I am
going to play with Holly and Max who like me. I’ll care for you later”

Taffy’s eyes lit up at the toy. She hopped to the upper perch and reached her beak through the
bars to get the feather.

Megan moved the cat toy to the other side of the cage and Taffy followed it.

Aha, thought Megan. I’m about to outsmart you!

So Megan left the toy just out of Taffy’s reach and with Taffy distracted, Megan was able to
unlock the cage door for Taffy. Taffy hopped out of the cage as soon as Megan backed up. Once
on top of her cage, Taffy puffed up her feathers and bopped up and down while saying, “Dance,
Taffy, dance.”

Megan giggled and went back down the hall to find Holly and Jill.

“Jill, guess what? I got Taffy’s cage door open.”

“How? Did you get bit again?” Jill asked, climbing off the bed.

“No, Taffy likes the feather toys too. I used it to distract her and got the door open. No
problem.”

“Wow, good thinking. I just hope we can get her back in her cage.”

Megan nodded, before focusing on Holly. “Here, Holly, I got you a feather toy,” Megan said,
climbing on the bed and dragging the toy across the bedspread in a slow, teasing fashion. Holly
reached for it half-heartedly but didn't move from her spot on the pillow to chase it.

Jill giggled, “Let me try. She isn’t interested in it that way.”

Megan handed the toy to Jill, who didn’t have any better luck enticing Holly to play.

After several attempts to get her to play, Megan and Jill gave up.

“I get it, we are interrupting your nap. Go back to sleep. We’ll go play with Max out back,”
Megan said, scratching Holly’s ears.

Jill jumped off the bed and followed as Megan raced Max to the back door. Out in the yard,
Max brought Jill and Megan his favorite tennis ball and dropped it at their feet expectantly.

Jill kicked the ball across the yard with the toe of her shoe, “That ball is gross. No way I’m
touching it.”

Megan giggled and picked it up when Max brought it back. “It’s just muddy,” Megan said holding it in front of Jill’s face.

“Gross!” Jill squealed, stepping backwards to avoid the ball that Megan still held in the air.

Megan giggled and threw the ball all the way across the yard several times. Then, she tried a
pop-up for Max.

“Good catch! Come here, boy,” said Megan.

“Catch, that reminds me. Adam is playing in a baseball game tomorrow afternoon. Want to
come with me?” Jill asked, as she watched Max run.

“I told you before, baseball games are boring to me. Besides, how can you be gone that long
when we are pet sitting?”

“It’s just at the school from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. I didn’t think it would be a problem,” Jill said.

“Ok, I’ll come over here by myself tomorrow afternoon,” Megan said, glancing at her watch.
“Oh, no, it is already four-thirty. We have to feed you guys because we have to get home for
dinner.”

Megan and Jill hurried into the house. I wish school days would go this fast.

Jill grabbed Max’s water dish and moved to the sink to dump and refill it. Megan went to the
pantry and filled Max’s food bowl with kibble. He bounced up for the bowl as she moved across
the room to put it down.

“Hold on a minute. You're going to make me drop it,” Megan laughed, as she placed the bowl
on the floor with a thump.

“You were hungry, huh?” Megan asked, as Max scarfed his food and licked his bowl clean.

“I’m getting Holly’s bowl,” Megan said.

“No, please. Let me get Holly’s bowl, and you get Taffy’s,” Jill said.

Megan smiled and agreed.

As Jill headed down the hall, Megan easily pulled Taffy’s food and water dishes from the cage
door.

Back in the kitchen, Jill mixed the wet and dry cat food together as Mrs. Driscoll had instructed.

Meanwhile, Megan changed Taffy’s water and filled one food dish with seeds and nuts. The
other food dish she filled with some of the fruit mixture that Mrs. Driscoll had left for her.

Jill had finished mixing Holly's food, so Megan left Taffy’s dishes on the counter to go see Holly.

Max trotted after Jill and Megan as they carried Holly’s food to the bathroom.

Holly appeared on the counter as Megan squeezed the quarter inch strip of hairball medicine
onto her food.

“Here you go, girl,” Megan said stroking Holly’s back. Holly rubbed against Megan and Jill as she
walked to her food dish.

Holly sniffed at the food but then jumped down and left the room.

“You need to eat dinner,” Megan called after her.

Holly was stretched out on the bedroom carpet as Megan and Jill headed back down the hall.

“Holly will eat later, right?” Megan asked.

“I’m sure she will,” Jill said confidently.

Megan and Jill returned to the kitchen. Jill collected Taffy’s bowls from the counter and handed
them one by one to Megan. Megan easily reattached the bowls to the cage door and added calcium
shavings to the fruit dish before Taffy came down to see what she was doing.

Jill jumped backwards, and Megan pulled her hands back quickly as Taffy approached. The girls
watched Taffy hop on the food dish and take a nut in her beak.

Megan carefully closed the door and latched it with Taffy inside, eating happily.

“Yes! We did it,” Megan cheered.

“We have all the pets fed, and it is barely five o’clock. I won't be late for dinner.”

“Come on, Max, I will give you a treat before we leave,” Megan said, going to the kitchen once
more.

Max almost took Megan’s fingers as well as the biscuit.

“I don't think you chewed that at all,” Megan laughed, as he swallowed the biscuit in two
seconds.

Jill carefully checked that the back door was locked while Megan made sure Taffy’s cage was
closed.

As they headed to the front door, Megan called, “Bye guys. We'll be back later.”

Jill locked the front door behind them.

“Thanks, Jill,” Megan said, grinning at her friend.

“Sure, that was fun. What time do we need to come back tonight?” Jill asked.

“Nine o’clock.”

“Ok, see you then.”

I did it! Pet sitting is so much fun.

Megan smiled, and as she walked home, her fears about pet sitting
faded. She couldn’t wait to tell her parents all about her first day pet sitting and about the quirky
personalities of the Driscoll’s pets.

About Pamela Foland

Pamela Foland grew up in Plano, Texas. Her love of animals started at a very young age. As a child, she was constantly bringing home stray dogs, and injured birds. She graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and a minor in Business in 2005. As an adult, her love of animals has only grown stronger. Pamela has worked in numerous pet hotels as a dog trainer and is certified to teach pet first aid and CPR. All her experience with pets culminated four years ago when Pamela found and raised an abandoned litter of day-old kittens. Not able to part with any of these now-grown babies, Pamela enjoys going home to her "little munchkins" every night. This experience gave Pamela the inspiration for her series debut, Megan's Munchkins. Pamela will always have a special affinity with Megan because of their shared experiences. She truly believes there are few experiences in life more compelling than saving the life of another being.